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Life in 1961

President Eisenhower, age 71, leaves public life, warning in his farewell speech to the nation of the military-industrial complex and its pervasive role in formulating US policy.

President Kennedy, age 43, is in his first year as president.

Cuba's Fidel Castro, with glasses, sits in a tank in the opening hours of the Bay of Pigs operation, April 17, 1961.

Kennedy executes plans begun during the Eisenhower administration for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba; but the invasion fails, further hardening relations between the US and the Soviet Union.

Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps, enabling US citizen-volunteers to work abroad for two years on education, public health, business and agricultural initiatives.

Kennedy leaves Washington's Shoreham Hotel, June 1961.

Kennedy meets with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, age 67, in Vienna, while taking medication for severe back pain. They discuss nuclear testing, disarmament and divided Germany; and the meeting does not go well.

Weeks later, Kennedy addresses the nation on the “Berlin Crisis” and advocates the construction of fallout shelters.

Refugees from East Germany await processing at a West Berlin refugee center in West Berlin, July 1961. CIA photo.

In August, East Germans erect the Berlin Wall.

In October, US and Soviet tanks face-off at Checkpoint Charlie, a militarized entry point into West Berlin, sparking fears of nuclear war.

Kennedy calls for a US moon landing by the end of the decade.

Left: Montagnard tribesman with his crossbow. Right Montagnard men undergo US military training. Talmadge Cain photo.

Kennedy rejects proposals to send ground combat troops to South Vietnam, but authorizes other actions in support of the South Vietnamese military.

The CIA begins assisting Montagnard people in fighting against Viet Cong forces in the Vietnamese highlands.

Left: A US B-26 Marauder medium bomber pulls up after dropping bombs during Operation Farm Gate. The B-26 was used during WWII and in Korea. In Vietnam, US aircraft engaged in the operation were painted in South Vietnam's colors to disguise their mission. Right: A UH-H1 helicopter "spray ship" is parked next to Agent Orange drums.

American pilots begin flying combat missions in support of South Vietnamese ground forces.

Agent Orange is used to defoliate roads believed to be frequented by Viet Cong forces.

Additional American advisors are deployed; and by the end of the year, 3,205 American military personnel are in South Vietnam compared to 900 a year earlier.

Left: VP Johnson, President Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy watch Shepard's lift-off, May 5, 1961. Right: Grissom is rescued as his spacecraft sinks, July 21, 1961.

In May, astronaut Alan Shepard completes a fifteen-minute sub-orbital spaceflight in the Mercury Freedom 7 spacecraft.

Shepard’s flight comes twenty-three days after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space by completing one full orbit around the Earth.

Gus Grissom completes a subsequent sub-orbital flight in July, but his spacecraft floods after splashdown and Grissom narrowly avoids drowning.

Left: National champion Laurie Owen's cover photo appeared two days before she and the other skaters were killed.

In February, the entire US figure skating team, including coaches and 44 skaters, is killed in the crash of a passenger jet in Brussels.

Many of the skaters were Olympic champions,

Left: A white mob beats Freedom Riders in Birmingham, Alabama. May 14, 1961. Right: John Lewis was among the Freedom Riders who were beaten in Montgomery, Alabama, on May 20, 1961.

The first Freedom Rides of civil rights activists take place.

They are challenging the refusal of southern states to uphold federal laws which prohibit racial segregation in the restaurants and waiting rooms of terminals serving buses that cross state lines.

The riders face arrest and mob violence.

Left: Maris in 1961. RIght: Babe Ruth in 1927, when he established the home run record of 60.

Roger Maris, right-fielder for the New York Yankees, breaks Babe Ruth’s home-run record, set in 1927, by hitting his 61st home-run.

Judy Garland in Carnegie Hall, April 21, 1961.

Judy Garland, age 39, performs a ‘come-back’ concert at Carnegie Hall.

The live recording of the concert wins four Grammy Awards.

Eddie Murphy in "Beverly Hill Cop," Princess Diana, Gary Cooper and Grandma Moses.

Born in 1961: Eddie Murphy; George Clooney; Princess Diana; Barack Obama.

Died in 1961: Gary Cooper (60); Ernest Hemmingway (62); Ty Cobb (75); Grandma Moses (101).

I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda